Subdivision 1. Implementing program. In districts where a flexible learning year program is implemented in fewer than all of the facilities maintained by the district, the board of the district must make every reasonable effort to assign qualified teachers who prefer a traditional schedule to facilities of the same level retaining a traditional schedule.

Subd. 2. Teacher schedule. A full-time teacher currently employed by a district that converts to a flexible learning year program may not, without the teacher's written consent, be required to teach under this program (1) more or less than the number of scheduled days or their equivalent the facilities of the district were maintained during the year preceding implementation of the flexible learning year program; (2) in a period of the calendar year substantially different from the period in which the teacher taught during the year preceding implementation of the flexible learning year program.

Subd. 3. Contract rights; program adoption. In no event may a teacher's continuing contract rights to a position held the year preceding implementation of a flexible learning year program or teaching experience earned during a probationary period the year preceding implementation be lost or impaired upon adoption of a flexible learning year program. If the year of teaching preceding implementation was the end of a probationary period, the continuing contract right to a full year's contract which normally would be acquired for the next succeeding learning year must be acquired in the year of adoption of the flexible program.

Subd. 4. Contract for learning year. Any district operating a flexible learning year program must enter into one contract governing the entire learning year with each teacher employed in a flexible program. If individual teachers contract to teach less than a period of 175 days during a learning year, each 175 days of employment accrued during any five-year period after the adoption of a flexible learning year program must be deemed consecutive and constitutes a full year's employment for purposes of establishing and retaining continuing contract rights to a full learning year position pursuant to sections 122A.40, subdivisions 5 and 7, and 122A.41, subdivisions 2 and 4. A teacher who has not been discharged or advised of a refusal to renew the teacher's contract by the applicable date, as specified in section 122A.40 or 122A.41, in the year in which the teacher will complete the requisite number of days for securing a continuing contract must have a continuing full learning year contract with the district.

Subd. 5. Contract rights; termination of program. Continuing contract rights established pursuant to this section must not be impaired or lost by the termination of a flexible learning year program.

History: 1974 c 326 s 7; 1978 c 764 s 6; 1986 c 444; 1991 c 265 art 9 s 9; 1998 c 397 art 6 s 6,124; art 11 s 3